Prosecutor of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office personally interrogated Boyko Rashkov, Minister of the Interior, on the “Hemus” case

4 January 2022

In connection with numerous media inquiries regarding the interrogation of Assoc. Prof. Boyko Rashkov, Minister of Interior, as a witness in the case of money laundering intended for LOT-5 from Hemus Highway, which gained public popularity as the „Hemus“ case, Sofia City Prosecutor's Office notifies the following:

Today, January 4, 2022, Assoc. Prof. Boyko Rashkov, Minister of Interior, appeared in the building of  Sofia City Prosecutor's Office and was questioned as a witness by a supervising prosecutor in the case.

The decision to interrogate Minister Rashkov was taken by the supervising prosecutors with regard to his statement on December 23, 2021 in „Before All" on the program "Horizon" of the Bulgarian National Radio, namely:  „For me is not a secret where this money went. I am watching carefully and with interest the reactions of some people who are keenly interested, almost expecting me to say on the air how far we have come, to take some action, probably some suitcases and go - to Dubai, or somewhere else.”

Minister Rashkov was regularly summoned as a witness for two dates - 30.12.2021 from 10:00 and 04.01.2022 from 14:00.

Prior to the interrogation, Assoc. Prof. Rashkov was acquainted with his rights and obligations as a witness in accordance with the statutory interrogation procedure and was invited to present in free form everything he knew about the Hemus investigation after which he was asked additional questions.

The interrogation was conducted according to the general procedure and at the request of the witness Rashkov no video and audio recording of the same was made.

During his interrogation in the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office building today, B. Rashkov did not indicate any specifics as a witness, including not specifying persons and places where money subject to investigation in the case may have been transferred and / or concealed. Witness Boyko Rashkov described his statements on Bulgarian National Radio as "political" and said that "they cannot be others".

The investigation will continue according to a plan outlined in advance by the team of supervising prosecutors to gather and verify evidence.